Quote:
Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper
Flesh and Blood! There's a local game shop where I'm friendly with the owner, and he's doing his best to get me to bite on that one.
How much have you played? How do you like it? He gave me a couple little sample decks but I don't really know what I'm looking at. And haven't spent time online to figure it out.
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I've played quite a bit at this point. I think it's an excellent game. The simplicity of the base rules almost reminds me of HeroScape.
Effectively, you draw until you have 4 cards at the end of each of your own turns. On your turn, you take an action (either playing a card, or using a card you already have out- usually your weapon). Sometimes an action has "go again," which lets you take another action. You produce resources by "pitching" cards- cards pitch for 1, 2, or 3 resources. You also defend with these same cards. So the core rub is that because you only draw back up to 4 cards at the end of each of your own turns, the more you block with, the less you have to swing back at your opponent.
While it's a little more complicated than that, the actual rules of the game are pretty much that simple.
It's basically the reverse of Magic, or any other traditional CCG. In Magic, you progressively build your board. In FAB, you start off strongest at the beginning of the game, and you get progressively weaker as you use your one-time use equipments and play your best cards.
However, there is a lot of skill involved in the game- much more than just a few games can uncover. You have something called an "arsenal" slot. Basically, at the end of your turn (before drawing), you can put a card from your hand into arsenal. You can play it later, but you can't (generally) pitch it for resources or block with it. So choosing what to arsenal, when to arsenal, and when to play from arsenal is a huge deal.
You also have to choose when to "pivot." Tempo in FAB is a weird thing, because if you keep swinging at me and I don't want to take damage, then I have to keep blocking. But eventually either you'll have a subpar turn, or I'll have drawn what I need, and I won't block at all, and then I'll come back at you with a 5-card hand (4 cards in hand and the card I stashed in arsenal earlier). Choosing this pivot turn is absolutely crucial. It's almost a poker-like concept: I'm choosing not to block and betting, say, 12 health (the average damage that 4 cards can either present or prevent) on the fact that I'm going to deal at least that much back to you by the time you choose to pivot yourself and take back tempo from me.
This back-and-forth dance is absolutely fascinating to me. I've played probably 50ish games, and I still feel like an amateur at this concept.
And then you add in the fact that every hero plays differently, and you can build most heroes' decks in different ways. The hero classes are largely what you'd expect if you've played RPGs (which I know you have), or even something like Hearthstone- although there are some interesting differences.
And beyond just playing your chosen hero, you have to know how to play them into the others. This requires understanding both your general strategy and theirs so that you can figure out how you'll approach the matchup in an effective way. Knowing your win condition is crucial. For example, maybe you're playing a general midrange strategy. If you're playing against a more aggressive deck, you'll probably need to block with your hand turn after turn until you have exactly what you need to pull off an effective pivot turn. Conversely, if you're playing against a control deck, you'll need to really press on the gas pedal, and try to present more damage than they can block each turn.
Break points really matter here- the average card blocks for 3. Thus, two attacks of 3 are much worse than an attack of 4 and an attack of 2. The first scenario can be fully blocked by just about any two cards. The second requires three cards to block all the damage. And more likely, they'll only block the 4-damage with one card, so 1 damage will leak through. With starting at 40 health in the full constructed game, this might not seem like much, but games often come down to just a few health. And once you're below ~10 health, every point really matters, because if you can present lethal damage to your opponent turn after turn, they'll have to keep blocking, and you can prevent them from taking tempo back.
And beyond that, when you pitch a card for resources, it goes to the bottom of your deck (as opposed to cards you block with or play- they go to your discard pile). Thus, what you pitch later becomes what you draw. Learning to "pitch stack" becomes incredibly important against control decks that like to take the game long, as you can effectively guarantee amazing hands at later crucial points in the game by stashing away some of your great cards to the bottom of your deck. But the tradeoff of course is that you're probably making some of those earlier turns weaker- and the control deck is doing the exact same thing when they pitch.
That's definitely much more than what you wanted to know. I will say that this game does differ a bit from HeroScape in a fundamental way. HeroScape is amazing at all levels, be it tourneys or casual. FAB is best when you're playing at a semi-competitive level, and when you're willing to really dig in. It's a game that really rewards you for going deep- much like my other favorite card game, The Game of Thrones LCG 2.0 (RIP). So even if you're not playing at the pro-level events, digging a bit deeper into the system is very much rewarded.
Also, I've only played it 2-player. I've heard that the multiplayer format is a lot of fun, especially when it's a little more casual and when people are really utilizing the card effects designed for multiplayer (which allow for negotiation between players).